Here's another chapter for you. I think I've only got a couple left to go. If anything doesn't sound right, let me know and I will endeavour to fix it.
As always, Mac and Jack are not mine, but all the others are.
They arrived at the Delta part of the camp and Jack helped Mac to drop off his EOD gear. The other four from earlier stood and introduced themselves. "So kid, what's your first name?" Tim asked after he had introduced himself as Mac.
He seemed to blush a little, and stayed silent for a moment before a soft, "Angus." made it past his lips, causing them to chuckle.
"No wonder you prefer 'Mac'." Tyler said. He then helped the younger man to get settled in before getting his hel with something.
They were talking quietly when the rest of the unit came in an hour later. Several stopped in surprise at the sight of Mac, calmly pulling apart an already deactivated bomb, at the entrance to the building that they occupied when on base.
"Hi, Mac." He said, standing and holding out a hand to shake.
Jack watched their reactions closely. He had hidden himself partly in the shadows of the building as the team talked. Mac was starting to relax around the others, and he hoped that the new arrivals would be accepting of him without the team leader having to step in.
A couple held out their hands and greeted him back with their own names. Tim was sitting beside Mac and had been pointing out a few things that Simon had noticed about this particular bomber. He leaned back in his chair and Jack hoped that by having Simon's closest friend supporting the kid, the others would accept him better.
The arrivals numbered six; and with two accepting Mac quickly, that made eight that were at least supporting his decision (even if the rest of the team didn't know that yet). The other four looked at the kid a moment, at Tim calmly handing him a screwdriver as a reminder that they still had work to do; then three of them stepped forward, hands out, as well.
As Jack expected, Jason was the only one who didn't welcome the kid. He brushed past him without so much as looking at him. Jason had never liked change. He hated younger people as well. Anyone who hadn't been in combat for more than five years didn't belong in a Delta unit, was his way of thinking.
Jack sighed before he stood, surprising the others, even Mac and Tim. The new arrivals hadn't seen him and the other two had forgotten he was there. "Before you ask, Jason; Mac's good at what he does. I've seen his work, both as an EOD tech and with other things. I know you don't like change, but with Simon gone, we need a tech." He headed out onto the porch that he and several of the others had added to the building. "Radise has a mission for us in a week. Tomorrow morning, 0430, meet me on the track. We're gonna start training until we know each other's moves. Get some sleep men. Mac bring your suit. We'll be doing some work for you too." He saw the younger man nod and headed back to his own tent, hoping that at 10 to 1, Jason wouldn't do anything silly, at least tonight.
It was at 0400, just as Jack was getting ready to head to the field that Tim knocked on his tent.
"Knock, knock, boss. You up?" He asked before just ambling in. Tim was actually the same rank as him, but had only been in the military for about half the time as Jack.
"Sure, what's up?" He asked as he tugged his shirt on. He hoped that nothing had happened over night. The last thing he needed was to deal with sleepy men along with everything else.
"Mac. He was having trouble sleeping last night. Until I helped him drag his bed onto the porch."
Jack sighed. He had a feeling he knew what that was about. It meant that the men he was bunking with before now were giving him trouble and the kid was still feeling it.
"So long as we support him, and keep him clear of Jason; he should get use to it." He told Tim the reason he suspected, and Tim nodded.
"I'll keep him close." He must have seen the look in Jack's eye. "I promise, no hanky panky."
Jack knew of Tim's preferred bed mates. He and Simon had been very close after all. "I would have thought you, aside from Jason, would have objected to this more."
Tim sighed and sat as Jack finished getting ready. "I never took much notice of him, but I caught up with Charlie Robinson while I was Stateside. He mentioned the kid. Talked about him. We have the same background; raised by a grandparent after Mom or in his case, Dad left. And last night, I could see how close he was, and possible still is to breaking." Tim looked up at Jack then. "Because of my choice of, bedmates, I've been on the receiving end of similar things, until I joined your unit. I figured the kid needed someone who has a similar past to be able to connect with."
In other words, someone to talk to when things got too much, who wasn't his boss. Jack read between the lines. He nodded and headed out, allowing Tim to proceed him to the track, where he could make out the rest of his team in the darkness.
The next few hours were spent running the track, so Jack would have a fair idea where Mac stood with the rest of the team. His lack of food and sleep was still affecting him, but he hoped that a week with the rest of the team watching his back and away from all the bullies (who were now on a plane back to the US) would help.
They had breakfast later as a team with the higher ranks, where Radise looked over and caught Jack's eye at one point. He nodded a silent OK, making his friend smile. Jack knew that his team would be good with Mac joining them.
They spent the rest of the week bonding; finding out just what Mac was capable. They did a mock firefight while Mac disarmed a tricky bomb that Robinson had designed and sent over for them. This gave Mac a few tense minutes with live weapons fire (rubber bullets still hurt like the devil) going off around him. Jack thought he did well, since he had said that he hadn't done that sort of thing before.
A couple of weeks later found them holed up in an old building with the same situation, only the bullets were real. It had been a simple snatch and grab, until they discovered that their intel was wrong about the number of men, and that there was no one to snatch. Jack told Mac that the chance of ending up in a firefight were high with their unit, so Mac had agreed to carry a gun, even if he didn't draw it very often.
Jack watched as Mac fired at a man that had managed to get past Jason, causing him to drop. The shot had ended up between the eyes, making him rethink the reason that Mac didn't like using guns. It had nothing to do with his marksmanship.
He then scooted over and had another go at the bomb that he had spotted. It had been tucked away into a corner. Not live, thank God, but still, a hit from one of the many bullets flying around them could set it off. He then got busy trying to not die as the fighting intensified. Jason screamed as a bullet made it past his vest, causing Mac to shout
"Don't touch the vest!"
He finished whatever he had been doing to the bomb, that no longer looked like one; and raced over. He had a handful of powder that Jack realised had come from the bomb. Jack had pulled Jason back into better cover and watched as Mac poured it over the wound on his shoulder. The vest had been tight enough to keep pressure on the wound until Mac had pulled it back. Before the blood could start up again, he had set the lighter to it. The gun powder flashed and instantly cauterised the wound. Jason had passed out by this time, but Mac was already heading back to whatever he had been doing with the bomb.
Jack watched as the fighting subsided a little, then stopped as a voice yelled out for them to surrender. Knowing that wouldn't be an option, he was about to yell back as such when Mac caught his attention.
"Jack, we need to get out of here."
"We go out there, they'll kill us." He said.
"We only need to get just outside. Oh and clear the doorway." He shuffled around and Jack suddenly saw a contraption that Mac had been building while under heavy fire and helping one of his team mates.
"Ok, outside and clear of the doorway." He told the rest of the team as he roused Jason. After a look of amazement at the order, and a nod to show that he wasn't crazy, they headed out.
MACGYVER MACGYVER MACGYVER
"You should have seen him, Thom. He built this directional bomb in the middle of all that." Jack said a few days later. Radise had been busy so hadn't had a chance to talk to Jack until then.
"It work?" Radise asked as he looked over the photos that showed the damage the kids bomb had done. MacGyver had placed it at the door as they exited, and detonated it just as the team dove clear. It had also blown out the windows and had the added effect of destroying most of the terrorists that had cornered them.
"If it hadn't, none of us would be here." Both men contemplated that a moment. It was a couple of days later that they were discussing what had happened. Jack still trying to figure out how the kid had turned a bunch of IEDs into what he had with nothing more than what was around them.
Radise handed Jack the item he had requested a day or so after they got back, Jack nodding his thanks. The kid would need it if he was still up for sticking around with them. "Took a while to find, but one of the others in camp had one."
"What do I owe?" Jack asked, a smile gracing his features at the answer.
"A water pistol."
MACGYVER MACGYVER MACGYVER
Mac was sitting outside the Delta hut, fiddling with his fingers. He had been shot in one shoulder, a graze; and had strained the other when getting out of the doorway a few days earlier. The base doctor had ordered no straining under any circumstances, or he would be heading home for a few weeks until both healed. So of course, he was insanely bored. He had tried to practice dismantling a few bombs, but he had not only been caught, twice, but he had pulled the stiches holding the graze closed.
Jack watched the younger man for a moment from the shadows of the other buildings before walking over. "Here," he said, dropping what Radise had given him into the kid's hands. He watched as Mac's eyes lit up.
A few days before, when re-making the bomb, he had to use the Swiss army knife that his grandfather had given him before he deployed to hold down a component. He had been moody after that until Jack had asked about the reason. It had taken him and Radise a few days to find a replacement, mainly because a lot of the men and women loathed to give them up. The one that Radise had found was a little beaten up, scuffed, but had all its innards.
Now Mac looked like Christmas had come early and eagerly checked it out, making sure that it had all the bits. Jack sat in a chair and watched as he went to work on something that he had been banned from. Jack raised an eyebrow when he winced as his muscles stretched, but when the kid didn't grunt in pain, Jack left him to it.
"You owe one of those water pistols, by the way." He said after a few minutes. He could now see that Mac had managed to make, using nothing more than a few scrap pieces from the motor pool, another arm for the bomb robot. It looked like it could pick up and carry something the size of a 20 inch TV.
"Who to?" Mac paused at that, looking at Jack.
The older man shrugged as he accepted a drink from Tim as he came out to join them. "The general didn't say. Hand it to him, and he'll make sure it gets to the right person." The older two looked at the younger man as he finished his drink and used the can to make springs to add to the arm, increasing the gripping strength. Jack and Tim looked at him in amazement, shaking their heads.
A/N: There is one more chapter after this. It contains graphic wording of the injury kind. I have put a warning before it starts as well as in the AN at the start of the chapter. I don't think it's too bad, but most likely if you're squeamish it won't be good. If anyone would like me to post a non graphic version of it, let me know.